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Jimmy Cheng-Ho Lin, MD, PhD, MHS is the Founder/President of Rare Genomics Institute, helping patients with rare diseases design, source, and fund personalized genomics projects. He is also on the faculty in the Pathology and Genetics Departments at the Washington University in St. Louis, as part of the Genomics and Pathology Services. Prior to this, he completed his training with Bert Vogelstein and Victor Veculescu at Johns Hopkins and Mark Gerstein at Yale, and led the computational analysis of some of the first exome sequencing projects in any disease, including breast, colorectal, glioblastoma, and pancreatic cancers.
At Rare Genomics Institute (RGI), we have a dream: that one day any parent or community can help access and fund the latest technology for their child with any disease. While nonprofits and foundations exist for many diseases, the vast majority of the 7,000 rare diseases do not have the scientific and philanthropic infrastructure to help. Many parents fight heroically on behalf of their children, and some of them have even become the driving force for research. At RGI, we are inspired by such parents and feel that if we can help provide the right tools and partnerships, extraordinary things can be achieved.
We start by helping parents connect with the right researchers and clinicians. Then, we provide mechanisms for them to fundraise. Finally, we try to guide them through the science that hopefully result in a better life for their child or for future children. Throughout the whole process, we try to educate, support, and walk alongside families undergoing this long journey.
Continue reading 'Guest Post: Jimmy Lin on community-funded rare disease genomics'


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Why Won't My Device Drivers Install?
Developing your skills as a computer owner is the only way to ensure you can get through minor issues without having to hand your device to a repair technician. Polishing up your device driver management skills could leave you frustrated if all your attempts fail to install the proper files. Keeping your device drivers updated is crucial for system safety, so you will need to build these skills now rather than later. You only need to take a few troubleshooting steps to discover why you are experiencing the problem. Fixing driver issues can save you a lot of time and money over paying for repairs every time a device has a hard time connecting.
Mismatches and Mistakes
The majority of driver installation errors arise from simple mistakes, making them surprisingly easy to solve. All too many experienced computer users have clicked on the wrong link for a download and ended up with a file they didn't want. Double checking that the file you received is the one you wanted in the first place only takes a moment and could save you a lot of hassle. Other issues arise when you download a driver designed for a different operating system or type of processor. Check all of the following points for compatibility when choosing your download:
- Version of Windows – XP drivers rarely load at all when used on Vista or 8 computers
- Type of processor – Check if your computer uses a 32-bit or 64-bit processor by visiting the System tab in the Control Panel
- Driver version – Some driver versions only work with specific firmware upgrades available for the device
- Latest updates – You need the best version of the driver file that works with your device to avoid bugs and glitches
Most third party websites fail to list all of the details for each driver they provide. Looking for a website specializing in Windows XP drivers or stick with the manufacturer's websites to make sure you have the information you need to make the right decision.
No Connected Device
It may seem smart to try and install needed drivers before investing in a device or connecting it to your computer. However, this is a little more difficult than you might expect. It takes a little more work to start the installation process without triggering it by connecting your new webcam or printer. You must download an executable installer file in the form of .EXE or .MSI in order to even attempt it. With just a .DLL driver file, you must attach the device to install the appropriate driver. If the computer doesn't recognize the device when you attach it, there may be an issue with the port or the hardware itself.
Lack of Administrator Privileges
The administrator account on a computer is often the only one authorized to make changes to the system files. This means that trying to install important drivers from a limited user account often backfires and leaves you unable to use your newest device. Log in to an account with administrator privileges before starting up any installer packages to give the program a chance to add files to the System folder and write registry changes. Computers with only one account tend to have administrator allowances already added to the login credentials, and you can change the privileges of your current account to give yourself the necessary access from the Control Panel.
Problem Solving: Safe Mode Installation
When driver installation fails, the process should reverse automatically and remove all of the files. This means you are ready to start a new installation when you locate a better match for your system or solve the problem preventing the process. Try starting the installation in Safe Mode to give it a better chance of working this time around.
- Shut your computer down with the Start menu. Gather your driver installer files and place them on the Desktop before completing this step.
- Start the system back up again with the power button. Press the F8 button at the top of your keyboard shortly after the boot screen appears, but before Windows itself loads and displays the colored flag. It may take you a few tries to get the timing right on this step.
- Choose either Safe Mode with Networking or without, depending on your preferences. It is generally best to choose the network-free option if you are adding drivers for devices related to networking, such as wireless adapters and Ethernet ports.
- Run your installer and complete the driver installation process. Shut down the computer again, then restart it without pressing F8 to boot into normal mode again.
- Test your driver and device.
Problem Solving: Automatic Driver Scanners
You can also put an end to installation problems with Windows XP drivers by using the right kind of driver assistance software. While there are many programs that use a collection of files to match your device to the right one, not all of them can scan and detect what you have attached to the computer. Pick a driver installer package that scans and automatically picks drivers for you if you aren't sure what is causing the installation issues with another file. Without this kind of support, you may end up dealing with an endless loop due to the same exact driver.

subset: commoncrawl


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This web site is output from the Laravel PHP Framework. It's one of several hundred sites covering UK local area code sites, each running from the same Laravel codebase in a multi domain setup.
Laravel is running on PHP 5.4 and MySQL 5.5, with Apache 2 web server. Server OS is currently CentOS 6.5
Most of the geo data manipulation was done using a Postgresql database with PostGIS 2 extensions, and visualised with QGis geospatial information system.
The perimeter of the point set was calculated using a concave polygon algorithm, then the map tiles were rendered using ImageMagick run from a PHP command line script. Tiles are on a 256 pixel grid, and have been calculated to range of map zooms, resulting in up to 10,000 tiles for each UK areacode.
All development work is done on my OS of choice: Fedora Linux.
For further details, or to hire me to work on your project please make contact via the contact page.


text: Development & Education Australia still struggling with legacy of "stealing" children from Aborigine families The World December 01, 2011 For almost 100 years, the Australian government maintained a policy of forcibly taking Aborigine children from their families and putting them with white families. Some, like Levon Ennis, were even sent abroad. Ennis is now trying to reconnect with his heritage and find his place in the world.


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Click links below to view directories or download files. Some directories may be empty due to collecting error or omission. These are raw data files as furnished by the WHOI Shipboard Scientific Support Group.
Name Last modified Size Description
Parent Directory - md5sums 26-Jul-2008 17:52 43 4414.zip 10-Jul-2008 21:52 4.7M
This data is served by the WHOI Data Library and Archives, a branch of the MBLWHOI Library.
Contact the WHOI Data Library & Archives at firstname.lastname@example.com for more information. You can view our privacy statement here.


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- 2011 (29)
- 2010 (52)
- 2009 (61)
- 2008 (42)
Blog Archive
- ► 2010 (52)
- ▼ June (5)
Walk Down Memory Lane...
17 BellaBuddies left comments! Ya know ya wanna!!:
- Jason said...
You're happy and I'm so happy for you. You have a beautiful daughter and I can tell from reading you blog how thoroughly happy you are. The best things in life take time and patience. Have a great Father's Day weekend!!!
- June 19, 2009 at 7:20 AM
- NYCity Mama said...
Awwwww. I love it...thanks for visiting my blog, because it brought me to yours...and your beautiful story. Your family is gorgeous! Happy Father's Day to you both! Will be visiting often : ) Big virtual hug--
- June 19, 2009 at 8:28 AM
- Apok said...
Aside from the needles and freezers, that's actually a lot more romantic sounding then when a man and a wife just have an oops in the back seat of their camaro.
- June 19, 2009 at 9:22 AM
- KWG said...
It's an amazing journey, and one I thought we'd never take until we changed our minds.
Congratulations to you both again on entering "fotherhood" as I like to call it!
Happy Fother's Day!
- June 19, 2009 at 9:32 AM
- Doug @ Daddy's Tired said...
That is a great story...I'm glad it turned out well for you guys...Enjoy your Father's Day and thanks for Posting!
- June 19, 2009 at 10:16 AM
- DCUrbanDad said...
Have a wonderful Father's day. You have a beautiful daughter and she is blessed to have you both in her life.
- June 19, 2009 at 10:20 AM
- Mrs.Lemon said...
This gave me tears! You guys are the most wonderful daddies. Happy Father's Day to you both. We miss you!
- June 19, 2009 at 10:31 AM
- Andrew's Daddies said...
Great post. The story is almost as beautiful as Bella herself..but not quite.
Happy Father's Day to you both!
- June 19, 2009 at 11:00 AM
- Diana of Diana Rambles said...
Wonderful story!!! Love it!!! Shout out & high five to all those egg donors & surrogates out there that are helping people to become parents!! When I was younger I wanted to be a surrogate, but pregnancy was not kind to my body.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!! Bella is beautiful!!
- June 19, 2009 at 11:42 AM
- Otter Thomas said...
What a great story! Happy Father;s day to you both!
- June 19, 2009 at 12:16 PM
- Melisa Wells said...
I love your story.
And Bella was perhaps one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. EVER.
Happy Fathers Day to you both!
- June 19, 2009 at 1:37 PM
- WeaselMomma said...
Bella is lucky to have you 2 to love her as much as you do and to have such a wonderful family.
- June 20, 2009 at 4:17 AM
- Scott (simplefather) said...
It's very evident that you have been through a lot, and deeply love your daughter. Your story is quite amazing (at least to a corn fed midwestern boy like myself :) ).
Happy fathers day.
- June 20, 2009 at 9:07 PM
- SurprisedMom said...
A belated Happy Father's Day to you! I hope it was a wonderful one.
This is a beautiful post to match your beautiful daughter. You have a warm, loving family.
- June 23, 2009 at 3:00 AM
- (F)redddy said...
After reading that I can tell you that adoption is DEFINITELY an easier (and faster!) process (and apparently cheaper too)! Great story. You've got a very handsome family. I almost spewed coffee when I read, "after a year together we decided..."!!! HOLY COW! After a year together I was told I "wasn't marriage material". After 5 years together I was told I "still wasn't marriage material" but WAS, apparently, "father material"!
- June 25, 2009 at 4:33 AM
- Anonymous said...
Your doughter is so cute :) I like to watch your pictures. We are from Austria and we also want to have a baby. I know for two men it is'nt easy but you made it !
- May 25, 2010 at 9:06 AM
- Anonymous said...
David and Vince, this brought me to tears. We are so thrilled to know you and your beautiful family.
- October 31, 2010 at 1:56 PM
About Me
- BellaDaddy
- Click "Our Story" below for more...


text: Steven P. Founder Share Posted June 17, 2012 We've linked the Neowin Google page to our site which means that it will eventually show in search results when you do a Neowin related search on Google, something like this: And recent activity: We are also linking our staff (news) profiles to Google+ which will give verified results in Google search for Neowin news articles that show in any generic search (not yet implemented). So, if you haven't already +1'd us, head over to our Google+ page and do so: https://plus.google....38183429240691/ At the moment there still isn't a way to automatically syndicate our news like we have on Facebook, but I'm hoping Google eventually gets to it! This is a new feature from Google, and it hasn't rolled out worldwide yet, but we're ready for when it does ;) 1 Share Link to post Share on other sites


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Luscara Nuvali Lot For Sale
Located at Central NUVALI, Luscara's strategic location provides quick access to the business and commercial centers of NUVALI North and the schools and recreational facilities of NUVALI South. Luscara's main gate is located left of the NUVALI Ecology Avenue if coming from Elaro. Luscara Nuvali Lots are For Sale.
Just beyond a lush canopy of green, Ayala Land Premier reveals a distinctive new living experience in NUVALI. A 50-hectare natural expanse weaving together intimate residential enclaves. Every urban convenience cultivating family comfortably and sustainably. A fresh approach to residential development generating a legacy of growth and renewal.
Luscara expands on an uparalleled legacy in creating the South's most desirable addresses as Ayala Land Premier's fifth residential community within NUVALI.
Luscara occupies a strategic location at the heart of the country's first and largest sustainable mixed-use urban development.
Accessible via South Luzon Expressway through Mamplasan*, Sta. Rosa and Eton Exits, residents will benefit greatly from quick access to schools, recreational facilities, business, and commercial centers of NUVALI.
Amenities, including a 3-hectare Clubhouse area, are designed to highlight the natural features of the land and offer vast opportunities for recreation. Children play outdoors in a naturally beautiful, safe neighborhood. Cultivating sustainability, Luscara's amenities acquaint generations of residents with nature's myriad textures and moods.


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Ramona Rochelle Foreman was walking to a store in her East Oakland neighborhood on what should have been a routine errand. But International Boulevard is one of the deadliest streets in the city. Last Wednesday, it once again lived up to its notorious reputation.
Just before 7 p.m., the grandmother was struck by a wild bullet as she walked along International with a relative. Once again, thugs who couldn't shoot straight missed their target. Foreman, 48, was fatally wounded. She is the 124th person killed in violence in Oakland this year.
While police processed the crime scene, Foreman's crumpled body lay on the sidewalk beneath a yellow tarp.
This is the kind of monstrous sight that you see in certain parts of East and West Oakland day in and day out. After so many lives lost — most of them to street gun violence — you would think that people in this city would finally emerge from their collective slumber and say enough is enough.
You would think that concerned residents would be holding Mayor Jean Quan's feet to the fire. That they would be packing City Council meetings to demand that Oakland's leadership finally produce a strategic plan for attacking runaway crime. That they would stop accepting Oakland Police Department officials' excuses that they can't do anything about the violence because they have too few officers and too few resources.
Yet instead, what gets folks in this town so hot and bothered? What gets them off their rumps?
A dog park.
At Tuesday's council meeting, supporters and opponents of a proposal to create an off-leash area for dogs near Lake Merritt argued back and forth for hours.
The council was split over the issue. Quan refused to cast the tiebreaking vote because she said she wanted time over the holiday to meet with the parties "to see if we could not get into nuclear warfare lawsuits that the city has been known for."
The mayor needs time over the holiday to deal with a dispute over a dog park?
Don't get me wrong. I am a dog lover. I think it's silly that Lake Merritt is pretty much off-limits to dogs (though we all ignore the "No Dog" signs), yet you can't take two steps without stepping in goose poop.
But how is this a life-and-death issue?
You can tell a lot about people's priorities by where they place their energies.
I live in deep East Oakland, where people are getting shot just about every week. A month ago, there were three street shrines to shooting victims near my house. The mother of a 1-year-old who lives close to Foothill Square shopping mall says she is considering moving because she doesn't want her child having to walk past shrines to homicide victims once she is old enough to go to school.
Yet the strange thing is, there is almost no sense of urgency about the nonstop street shootings at our neighborhood crime prevention meetings.
I went to one meeting in late October at the Eastmont police substation.
A few hours earlier, businessman Wilbur Bartley, 50, had been shot and killed inside his cellphone store on International Boulevard two miles away — less than two blocks from where Foreman was killed.
Yet those in attendance were more concerned about code violations and neighborhood nuisances than violence. They grilled public works officials about the unkempt medians on Bancroft Avenue. They demanded to know when the city would cut the overgrowth. They complained about dumping and abandoned cars. Yet they live in constant fear in homes with bars on the windows.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley recently referred to crime in Oakland as "out of control."
"Crime in Oakland is like cancer;" O'Malley said in a speech to the League of Women Voters of Piedmont. "We need chemo to stop it."
What we need, actually, is leadership.
Oakland does not have to accept the status quo. We must insist that our elected officials in concert with the Police Department and city stakeholders produce a comprehensive plan for addressing the violence.
Oakland is spending $5 million a year on Measure Y violence prevention programs. Yet Resource Development Associates, the firm the city is paying $300,000 annually to evaluate Measure Y's success, reported at a public safety meeting that the programs have had a limited effect because the city lacks an overall citywide crime plan.
What are Oakland's leaders waiting for?
Tammerlin Drummond is a columnist for the Bay Area News Group. Her column runs Tuesday and Sunday. Reach her at firstname.lastname@example.com or follow her at Twitter.com/tammerlin.


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Loan Officer Spotlight: Self-Employment Income Verification
Rumors have circulated among far too many borrowers that getting a home loan as a self-employed individual is incredibly difficult, if not completely impossible. I'm here to tell you that is not the case at all, especially with the experts here at NOVA® Home Loans.
As a self-employed person, you have many perks; setting your own hours, being your own boss, and electing to have casual Friday every day… But, if you have applied for any kind of credit, you may have learned that even though the pluses outweigh the minuses, verifying your income can be difficult.
Applying for a mortgage is very similar to applying for a credit card, so be prepared to submit at least the following items:
At least 2-years of tax returns
Profit and loss statements from your business
Bank statements for your business
Invoices, credit card and check copies
I realize this may be overwhelming, but don't worry, we are here to help you. If you don't know how to locate some of these items or are unsure of how to show this information, give me a call and I can help. There are various ways of verifying income, and it's my job to make this process as stress free as possible for you.
So, the bottom line is, if you are self-employed, you most certainly CAN get a home loan, you just may need my help. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me by phone or email. No question is too big or small!
Jim Buchanan
Website: Click Here


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« Prenatal Exercise May Give Newborns a Boost on Brain Development | Main | House GOP, Democrats Lay Out Differing Visions for STEM Education, Research »
Can We See Reading Comprehension in the Brain?
Brain researchers have long studied how students hear and read individual words, but it has proven difficult to parse out what happens when a reader understands a long and difficult passage of text.
Now, a team of researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston,Ill., have developed a new way to view reading comprehension in the brain, and in the process highlighted a new angle for testing comprehension that isn't skewed by a student's background knowledge.
In the study, published in the November issue of the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, Julia A. Mossbridge, a research associate at Northwestern, and her colleagues there monitored college-aged readers using electroencephalography, in which electrodes placed on a person's scalp measure electrical activity in the brain in response to specific actions, such as hearing a sound or reading a word.
"It's almost counterintuitive that you could use [brain electrical signals] to study something as complex as comprehension. It makes sense that you could use them to study something like [phonics] because you're saying, let's look at the difference in response to 'cat' versus 'dog,' or nouns versus verbs in word identification," Mossbridge said. "In a certain sense, we wanted to subtract out decoding and word identification because we wanted to look strictly at comprehension."
Random or Order?
The researchers presented each student with nearly 1,200 words of challenging text, part of the first chapter of Emile Zola's 1893 classic, Doctor Pascal. (Mossbridge said it was chosen because "no one had heard of it.") In one trial, participants read the text word by word in random order, and were asked to press a button every time they read the word "and." In the second trial, the participants performed the same task on the words presented in order, and in addition to marking the word "and," they were given a comprehension test on the text as a whole.
When participants read and understood the text well, there was a significant difference in their brain activity between when the words were read in proper order (shown in red) versus when they were read randomly (shown in blue):
By contrast, those who did not comprehend what they read had similar patterns of brain activity regardless of whether they read words one by one in order (red) or randomly (blue):
(The brain activity on the y-axis in these charts is measured on a current-source-density index, or CSD, which indicates the position and strength of the electrical information coming from the electrodes positioned around the scalp.)
By analyzing the difference in these two patterns, Mossbridge and her colleagues could correctly predict which readers comprehended the text 88 percent of the time. Among readers who saw the random words first (and thus were familiar with all of the words), the measure was 90 percent accurate.
"An important piece to me is that someone can read a whole [text], and they can even be at the college level, and seem like they've read it well--and they can do horribly on a comprehension test," Mossbridge said.
"Why would that be? It's because there is something that's not sticking--it's in working memory, or that's my guess" based on a critical difference found in electrodes placed over a part of the brain associated with working memory, she said. "Something is not carrying the information along, binding together the past with the future in what's just happened and what's coming up. That needs to be worked out. There's so much research out there showing the importance of working memory to reading comprehension, so this is another reminder."
Targeted Comprehension Test
Mossbridge and her colleagues are planning to refine the measure by repeating the experiment with younger students and those of different reading abilities. But already, Mossbridge said the study could be helpful for educators looking for more targeted ways to test reading comprehension, particularly in complex and difficult texts.
The Northwestern researchers developed their own comprehension test, using questions with multiple answers. A student was given credit for a given question only if he or she chose all of the correct answers and none of the incorrect ones.
"One of the problems with common reading comprehension tests is, if you happen to know a lot about physics, you don't have to understand the text about physics in order to answer the questions correctly," Mossbridge said. In the study's comprehension test, "If you didn't understand the text, your performance by chance would be not getting any questions correct."
The format was intended to weed out students guessing at answers, and the use of an older piece of fiction helped prevent students from relying on their own background knowledge rather than information from the text.
Photo: The charts show differences in brain activity while reading words in random order or in their proper order for a text. Note that readers who comprehend the text have a greater difference in activity between random and ordered words than readers who did not comprehend the text. Source: Northwestern University.


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EOT Lite - the right direction for web fonts right now
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Labels: EOT Lite
Monotype Imaging is a leading provider of advanced font products specializing in font technologies, type design, multilingual font development & licensing and software development for mobile phones. The Monotype Imaging team is renowned for its TrueType and OpenType font expertise, and can tune fonts for on-screen legibility in Microsoft Windows as well as Digital TV, Set Top Boxes, Mobile Phones, Game Consoles, Embedded Systems, Consumer Electronics and other devices.
Labels: EOT Lite


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Williams and Canfield knocked out in Semis
by Talbot Wilson
Hamilton BERMUDA, October 26, 2014 - Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Stena Sailing Team has won the 2014 Argo Group Gold Cup and $50,000 of the $100,000 prize purse. Berntsson defeated Eric Monnin (SUI) Swiss Match Racing Team 3-1 in brilliant match racing conditions on Bermuda's Hamilton Harbour. This is the second time the jovial swede has won the King Edward VII Gold Cup, repeating his triumph of 2008.
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar and Taylor Canfield (IVS) US One were the two competitors who had reached the Semi Finals with the best record. Coming into the Argo Group Gold Cup they were ranked 1 and 2 on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. They lost to Monnin and Berntsson in the Semi Finals. In the Petite Finals, Canfield defeated Williams 2-1 to claim third place, leaving Williams in fourth.
The Final and Petite Final skippers had sailed in 32 Gold Cup events amongst the four.
The first eight finishers in the Argo Group Gold Cup shared the $100,000 prize purse
|Johnnie Berntsson
|Eric Monnin
|Taylor Canfield
|Ian Williams
|$ 7,000
|Bjorn Hansen
|$ 5,500
|Pierre Morvan
|$ 4,000
|Steffan Lindberg
|$ 2,500
|Marek Stanczyk
|$ 1,000
Two special trophies are presented at the Argo Group gold Cup. The Wedgwood Heritage Trophy was first presented at the 1990 King Edward VII Gold Cup competition. It is presented to the sailor who best represents the traditional values and history of sailing. This year's winner is Eric Monnin as a consistent presence at the Gold Cup, always gracious and always a gentleman.
The Jordy Walker Trophy recognizes Marek Stanczyk of Poland as the most improved young match race sailor who competes in World Match Racing Tour events or other events that automatically qualify a skipper for a Tour event. He comes from Poland and has less opportunity to sail in international match racing events and but has improved his skills tremendously.
Jordy Walker, a man who gave his heart and soul to sailing and the sport of sailboat racing, used his time, money and talent to promote the sport he loved, to introduce the modern format of match racing to Bermuda. And, in fact, he brought match racing to the World in 1988 through the establishment of the WMRA and its match racing championship events he helped establish around the globe.
Quotes from the Final Four
with Laurie Fullerton
Johnie Berntsson We are so lucky, happy to win this time. We were never safe. The races we won we had to fight hard for. Eric Monin's team really drive the boat so fast. We were lucky to win by such small margins really by inches.
My crew did such a good job calling tactics and keeping us going fast. In the end, it was not easy racing today and by the finals the conditions changed from the light shifty conditions in the morning. It had all changed and we sailed well in this breeze.
As far as winning the King Edward VII Gold Cup, this is the top event for us. This is a huge win for us. This is one of the best events for us and one of the greatest wins we will ever have. We will be back.
Eric Monnin
I have been to the Gold Cup 11 times, and have been in the finals four times before. We finished fourth each time. Today, we finished in second place. It meant so much to our team to reach the finals. Next year we hope to come back and finish the job.
I am happy we played the shifts and worked the way we did as a team. Perhaps our luck changed a bit as the day went on but we felt all day that the corners were better than the middle of the course. We chose to play the wind and not sail as close. That was our strategy.
Taylor Canfield
We were looking to get that big win but we fought hard for every point. Hopefully, we will come back and win it next time. We have been sailing well all year and we are feeling pretty good about it. It just wasn't meant to be today. I would say all the competitors did a great job.
Ian Williams
Obviously when we woke up this morning, a fourth place was not what we envisioned. But, we sailed the best we could and we want to thank the organizers and the competitors for a great regatta.
2014 Alpari World Match Racing Tour Standings coming into the Argo Group gold Cup:
1. Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar 94pts
2. Taylor Canfield (ISV) US One 88pts
3. Mathieu Richard (FRA) LunaJets 76pts
4. Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Sailing 63pts
5. Keith Swinton (AUS) Team Alpari FX 58pts
6. Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing 56pts
7. David Gilmour (AUS) Team Gilmour 39pts
8. Francesco Bruni (ITA) Luna Rossa 20pts
Argo Group Gold Cup Media Contact:
Talbot Wilson, Talbot Wilson & Associates, Inc.
Tel: +1 (850)587-2668
Mob: +1 (850)217-7138
SKYPE: talbotwilson


text:
Critical Overview
(Poetry for Students)
Download Annabel Lee Study Guide
One of the first critics to comment on a connection between Poe and the speaker in "Annabel Lee" is John Cowper Powys, in his 1915 work Visions and Revisions: A Book of Literary Devotions. He writes that in poems such as this, Poe expresses "a certain dark, wilful melancholy," a cold mood that Poe "must surely himself have known." Powys's suggestion may spring from Poe's experience with loss, and in particular the death of his child bride, Virginia Clemm. Virginia's death occurred in 1847, two years prior to the writing of this poem, and her loss could have created for Poe the atmosphere or mood that he reproduces in his poetry. Even before her death, however, Poe had experienced the death of his actress mother when he was a small child, and then the death from brain cancer of Jane Stanard, a friend's beautiful mother whom the fourteen-year-old Poe had idolized; and he had already stated in his "Philosophy of Composition" that the most appropriate subject for poetry is the death of a beautiful woman because it carries with it the most emotional power.
Despite the coldness and "artificiality" he observes in Poe's poems, Powys remarks that "to say they are artificial does not derogate from their genius." Early assessments of Poe's verse dismissed it as overly musical and vulgar, but later critics have found more to praise in it. Noting that Poe wrote several kinds and degrees of poetry, George Saintsbury wrote in a 1927 essay, later included in Prefaces and Essays, that "I know nothing that can beat, if I know anything that can equal, 'Annabel Lee.'" He explains: "It begins quite quietly but with a motion of gathering speed and a sort of flicker of light and glow of heat: and these things quicken and brighten and grow till they finish in the last stanza, that incomparable explosion of rapturous regret that towers to the stars and sinks to the sea."
Rather than focus on the subject of the poem, Floyd Stovall in his book Edgar Poe the Poet recognizes the "hypnotic effect of the repetition of harmonized sound and sense through the poem, building up to a climax in the...
(The entire section is 546 words.)


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Domino's delivers, Coke is flatOctober 16, 2012: 11:57 AM ET
In the smorgasbord of corporate earnings out this week, food and beverage companies were on the menu Tuesday.
The Coca-Cola Company (KO) reported that earnings rose 4% in the third quarter, to 50 cents per share, while sales rose only 1%, to $12.3 billion.
Shares of the world's largest beverage company were down slightly in midday trading.
On StockTwits, some users were disappointed that Coca-Cola didn't see more growth in China and Europe.
retail_guru: Coke sees China volumes remaining weak for next six months; 2% volume growth also hurt by growth in low-volume / low-price packages $KO
But others were happy to step in and buy the stock at a discount.
SeekingBennyFrank: @knoxdogs hmmm, thanks, id buy $KO at 36$.
Despite some weakness in the soft drink sector, Domino's Pizza business was booming, according to its third-quarter results.
The mass market pizza seller said it earned 43 cents per share in the third quarter, up from 35 cents in the same period last year.
In addition, Domino's (DPZ) said sales at U.S. stores open at least one year rose 3.3% for the quarter. Overseas demand was also strong, with same-store sales at international locations up 5%. During the third quarter, Domino's opened 121 stores outside of the United States.
Opinterest: $DPZ What a monster! Stock now up 7.7% after it reports 5% international comp growth. Just scalped another quick 50 cents
spbaines: Excellent results from Domino's Pizza. I still think mkt under appreciates its margin & FCF leverage to rising international sales. $DPZ $$
Domino's was up more than 6% in midday trading.


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Biologist to lead discussion on restoring NH's native trout habitat
Discussion set for Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Restoring New Hampshire's native brook trout habitat is the subject of a free talk Wednesday night at Fish and Game headquarters.
Fisheries biologist John Magee will lead the discussion, which begins at 7 p.m.
Eastern brook trout are one of New Hampshire's most prized native fish. But, they are threatened by development, changing climate and pollution.
Magee has been working for years on the issue. Come hear what the department is doing to restore habitat for the "brookies" and perhaps add your own ideas.
The talk is part of a month-long series of free Outdoor Adventure Talks, all offered at 11 Hazen Dr. in Concord.
The Wednesday talks include one on selecting a kayak or canoe April 10; kayak camping April 17; a presentation on the rare Blandings turtles and nlack tacers, April 24; a presentation May 1 on N.E. cottontails and the Karner Blue Butterflies; and the May 8 mosquito eaters presentation, celebrating the fine work of bats and dragonflies.
You can get more information by visiting wildnh.com.


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text:
Same place in France
Dear Em
Just a very few words tonight to let you all know that all is well here with me. I enjoyed the Thanksgiving Day we just had here as well as could be expected and then some. Here is hoping that you folks enjoyed it doubly more than could be expected. There was a few times that day that I sure did wish I was there in Charlestown with you. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, much cranberry sauce and coffee. I give Uncle Sam credit. It was the best he could do and I thought it was quite enough.
I can't make myself beleive that it is so near Christmas and me not home. But we are going to make the best of this life until something is settled one way or another. We've received no mail for at least two weeks and you're probably in the same boat. How are the poor draft fellows? I suppose they had a tough holiday of it.
I got pretty chilly last night and was real snappy today. We have run all out of ink and this letter written in pencil is the result. As usual Im feeling good in fact very good and not getting a bit skinny over it. A large shipment of mail is due here tomorrow and Ive got great expectations of getting a lot of news from home. Here is hoping it is good news.
There are quite a few of us tin soldiers over here now a great deal more than was to be expected. And still coming. I wish there was something to say so that I could write a letter but all I can do is wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Im going to enjoy myself if it is possible. Give my regards to all.
With love.
© Copyright 2008 by Richard Landers, All Rights Reserved. No reproduction without permission.


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Welcome 2014!!
|Ringing in the New Year!
We are very excited about 2014, it's going to be a fantastic year, I can feel it! Looking forward to basketball tourney's, baseball season, spending time with family and friends, meeting new people, trying new things, being kinder, making smarter choices! That is what I love about a new year, it's a chance to try again, to improve who you are and how you live. This year I decided against making resolutions for the year, instead I will make them as they come; maybe weekly, perhaps monthly! To start off my list, my resolution to be a better blogger has already started and has been fulfilled ... it's the small victories that make us triumphant!
Happy New Year, may 2014 be a year with blessings, challenges (that can be overcome), laughter, stillness, peace and understanding. May the year ahead bring you good luck, fortune, success and lots of love (from the words of a good friend)!
|Happy New Year, from TJ!
|this is how TJ likes to bring in New Year!


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RPi XBMC
As I can't find a decent one-page overview of how to get XBMC working on the Raspberry Pi without resorting to downloading a dedicated image, this page should give everyone a hand getting set up (that is, if I am successful...)
The goal is to be able to run XBMC either standalone or under LXDE from the Foundation's Raspbian image.
This guide combines e.g.
- http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianXBMC
- http://debian.raspbian.com/qemu/README.txt
- http://linuxclues.blogspot.com/2007/06/installing-qemu-on-windows-vista.html
- http://xecdesign.com/qemu-emulating-raspberry-pi-the-easy-way/
- http://www.raspbmc.com/wiki/technical/building-xbmc/
Ways of installing XBMC
Getting XBMC from the repos (doesn't work in Wheezy) Building XBMC on the raspi (takes a long time) Building XBMC on a Windows machine (Qemu)
So far I haven't got it running...
Building XBMC from source using Qemu
Since it is unbelievably slow to build XBMC on the Raspberry Pi, I used a Windows machine with Qemu to do the build. Ubuntu cross-compile should work to0, but I didn't try it yet...
- Get 'Putty' (Windows Installer) from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
- Get latest 'Qemu for Windows' from http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/
- Get 'kernel-qemu' from http://xecdesign.com/downloads/linux-qemu/kernel-qemu (Interesting read: http://xecdesign.com/qemu-emulating-raspberry-pi-the-easy-way/)
- Get most recent Raspbian image ('2012-07-15 Wheezy' at time of writing) from http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads (The Foundation's version of Raspbian)
- Install OpenVPN to get a working Network TAP driver from http://openvpn.net/index.php/download/community-downloads.html (get the Windows installer)
After installing OpenVPN follow this guide to create (remember it's name and make sure there's no spaces in it) a network TAP interface http://linuxclues.blogspot.com/2007/06/installing-qemu-on-windows-vista.html
On Windows, create folder structure like so:
D:\Qemu (holding the Qemu for Windows 1.0.1+ zip contents) D:\Qemu\Raspbian (holding the 'kernel-qemu' file and the Raspbian image)
Then create a .bat file under D:\Qemu, containing the following launch string:
qemu-system-arm.exe -M versatilepb -cpu arm1136 -m 1024 -kernel raspbian\kernel-qemu -hda raspbian\2012-07-15-wheezy-raspbian.img -net nic -net tap,ifname=TAP0 -append "root=/dev/sda2 panic=1" -serial stdio
Resize the Raspbian image
Fix raspi-config resize issue with Qemu:
cp /usr/bin/raspi-config ~ sed -i 's/mmcblk0p2/sda2/' ~/raspi-config sed -i 's/mmcblk0/sda/' ~/raspi-config sudo ~/raspi-config


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Read here from PFT – actually sounds pretty scary. I hope he gets better soon…
Jermichael Finley has had complications from surgery
2 Responses to "Jermichael Finley has had complications from surgery"
Kozak Says:
November 3, 2010 at 7:39 pm |
Ugh. An infection in a joint is a Big Hairy Deal. Can be tough to get rid of, can lead to long term complications. Nuts. Here's hoping he has a speedy recovery.
Dave in Tucson Says:
November 5, 2010 at 4:58 am |
Any thoughts on Sunday's game? Feels like it could be a trap game:
–The Cowboys are going to want to get rid of that sour taste from last Sunday,
–This SNF game is as close as they're going to get to a playoff game this year, they're bound to be fired up,
–The Packers could be celebrating beating the Jets a little too much and/or looking forward to that bye-week a little too eagerly.


text:
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Terry Huckaby is spending the night at Halifax Medical Center after his brother was hit by debris from Daytona's crash.
"His name, when they brought him in, was Jolly George because they didn't have his name," said Huckaby. "He's in good spirits, but he took a pretty nasty cut on his leg."
The two were sitting in the Campbell box, Section 1 Row 11, when it happened.
"All of a sudden and in a split second there was stuff flying everywhere," said Huckaby. "There was a wheel and I saw stuff flying over my head. He kinda leaned over and when he did, a piece of metal hit in that way. He was kind of laying there and it scared me. He looked down and I seen his leg, and it was cut all the way down he was bleeding pretty good."
Huckaby said it was terrifying watching parts of a car fly at their faces.
"When you think about how many people are going to get hurt, and when a wheel came flying by that was a big item, this thing that hit my brother, that was a big item of course," said Huckaby. "We didn't see it coming, but there was so much loose stuff coming like small pieces flying everywhere."
The two are staying positive and they're just hoping everyone else who was hurt recovers.
"They got him covered up real good," said Huckaby. "Got him real comfortable and he wanted me to get his cell phone and shoes, because during all this melee, he lost one of his shoes somewhere. So if anyone finds a Nike shoe out there, call us."


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SCH is a beautiful company out of Ålesund, Norway whose goal is to share pieces of the Scandinavian culture through their coffee roasting lifestyle. They plan to open a location in New York in 2013. Sounds like we might have to plan a visit to the city next year!
Other Stories
5 comments:
Looks like just the sort of place I want to visit--shame it is NY and not nearer to me.ReplyDelete
Oh! It's coming to NY? So excited - I will have to try it out. I will keep you posted ;)ReplyDelete
is that ekte gjetost on rye? oh man, now I won't be happy with my own lunch! =)ReplyDelete
Oh my, i might just have to fly out to New York soon to get a bite of that! Looks amazing! Thanks so much for sharing :)ReplyDelete
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text:
Friday, December 16, 2011
9 Years Ago Today
I had to wear a nightshirt on the drive to the chapel because my hair and veil was done - and nothing else I had brought with me didn't go over my head.
We ate dinner at the nicest restaurant in town, which also had a salad bar.
We couldn't get over the fact that something we hadn't thought would matter, would in fact make us feel so very different.
Happy Anniversary.
Thank you for asking.
Posted by Gidge Uriza at 12:18 PM
Labels: anniversary
1 comments:
Happy Anniversary, Bunny. It DOES matter, doesn't it?
- Fri Dec 16, 02:44:00 PM


text:
You know the song I'm talking about. "And if you want to be the teacher's pet / Well baby you'd just better forget it / Rock got no reason, rock got no rhyme / You'd better get me to school on time!"
It's cheesy now, and it probably was back then. But I was a 14-year-old musician (and Tenacious D fan), and School of Rock resonated intensely with me. Besides, it was just plain catchy.
On Thursday night, ten years later, the cast (including Jack Black) reunited in Austin for a comeback show. I defy you not to get goosebumps while you're watching the video above. Then check out Miranda Cosgrove's Instagram (definitely never thought I'd write that) for more photos from the wistful get-together.
Via reddit


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Unintended Consequences of Money‐Laundering Laws, Cont'd
As Dan Mitchell pointed out this morning, proposals to abolish the $100 bill, on the grounds that it's too easily used in underground‐economy activities such as tax evasion and drug dealing, are another instance in which ordinary citizens are called on to sacrifice convenience and privacy to help in the ever‐expanding federal fight against "money laundering." I've long been fascinated by the unintended consequences that arise from these laws, especially from the federal "know your customer" rules under which banks (and increasingly other businesses) are required to pry into their customers' earnings sources, family relationships, overseas ties and other sensitive matters. Those who cannot furnish satisfactory answers — such as Americans who lack a suitable recent domestic credit record because they have long lived as dependents, overseas, or even as nuns in convents — may find that banks turn them away as customers or even freeze their existing accounts. The same is true of established customers who cannot explain a large or irregular series of cash deposits or remittances from abroad to a bank officer's satisfaction.
A new example of this has emerged this fall, and it's embarrassing even by the standards of federal government foul‐ups. According to a Foreign Policy report last month, no fewer than 37 foreign governments with embassies in the United States are on the brink of losing, or have already lost, access to the routine banking services they need to pay their staff salaries and keep the lights and heat on in their consulates. The reason? These governments cannot prove to the satisfaction of U.S. banks that their accounts are not potentially open to use for illicit money transfers. From the banks' point of view, there is no particular benefit to be had from an account which is relatively small in the first place — the countries involved are mostly poorer nations, many in Africa, with small embassy staffs — when these are dwarfed by the paperwork costs and potential legal exposures from a misstep.
The consequences for American foreign interests have already been unpleasant, and will become more so if the problem isn't fixed. Angola, which saw its accounts closed down by Bank of America, has already had to cancel planned national independence day celebrations and has hinted at retaliation against unrelated U.S. companies that happen to do business in Angola. Extend that sort of anger to 37 countries, and some significant international frictions could result.
Now, I have no doubt that some embassy bank accounts, of smaller and bigger countries alike, are pressed into service for improper or even criminal money transfers. (I always assumed the whole point of "diplomatic pouches" was to transfer things back and forth that the host country would have preferred to stop and inspect). But the odds are near zero, I think, that the latest wave of bank refusals‐to‐deal was somehow a planned or intended consequence of the original federal calls for wide‐ranging bank regulation in the name of money‐laundering prevention. How many such unintended consequences will the new Dodd‐Frank law turn out to have?


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Oceanside Unified School District (OUSD), has assembled a Culturally Proficient Educator Committee (CPEC) comprised of more than 40 district staff and community representatives with the goal of leading the work of cultural proficiency throughout the district to ensure we are providing safe and equitable learning environments for all of our students.
The importance of cultural proficiency goes beyond just providing curriculum and experiences that our students can identify with. As a district, we realize the importance of providing staff with the resources and training needed to better serve our diverse population. Through partnerships with the California Teachers Association (CTA), Oceanside Teachers Association (OTA), Human Rights Council of Oceanside, MeCHA, American Friends Service Committee, and the North County LGBTQ Resource Center we will focus on increasing individual cultural proficiency and building our capacity for cultural proficiency as an institution.
Cultural Proficiency is inside-out work. The work suggests we must first understand our implicit bias, so we can ensure that we do not promote stereotypes or act on negative assumptions towards a particular group of people. Superintendent Dr. Vitale said, " It is being aware of who you are in the world and how you operate and think, particularly towards certain groups of people. If we can all increase our individual awareness and intentionally work towards including and valuing all people in our community we will find that the feeling of belonging will grow to all stakeholders in OUSD."
The CPEC will participate in a series of events and trainings designed to challenge their own cultural bias and understanding of cultural diversity. Additionally, the CTA will provide two full days of unconscious bias training to the CPEC and the committee will visit the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Through the partnership with OTA and CTA, unconscious bias training is expected to be provided to all staff by the end of 2019.
Oceanside Unified School District is committed to supporting families with various structures and from various backgrounds and providing a first class education to all students through equitable, safe, and stable learning environments. We understand that each of our unique differences contributes to the success of our community.


text:
SCW Florida: Brutal Battle 2004 DVD-R
DVD-R Version
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Click here to check: (DVD-R Compatibility Chart)
SCW Florida presents "Brutal Battle" featuring their championship tournament.
- Ryze vs. Leon Scott - Tournament Match
- Thump Dupree vs. Chris Nelson - Tournament Match
- The Heartbreak Express vs. David Mercury & Sam Stash
- Aaron Epic (c) vs. Josh Rich - Southern Cruiserwt. Title
- Dagon Briggs & Johnny Schumacher vs. Mister Saint Laurent & Manny Montana - No Time Limit, No Holds Barred
- Steve Corino vs. Vordell Walker - Tournament Finals
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text:
NuVo expects the NV-T2SIR, built for use with its whole-home audio systems, will become its second product to earn the coveted ENERGY STAR.
Orlando, FL — March 13-15, 2008 — EHX Expo — Booth #512 — NuVo today unveiled its NV-T2SIR AM/FM SIRIUS-ready dual tuner, which can simultaneously receive both AM/FM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio signals.
"SIRIUS-ready" means the homeowner can use one or two SIRIUS modules (sold separately), plug them into a connector on the back of the NV-T2SIR, and select through AM, then FM, then SIRIUS on both sides of the tuner. As a result, users can simultaneously play two of any of these bands at one time. The signals received by the NV-T2SIR can then be distributed throughout a home using NuVo's Grand Concerto and Essentia E6G whole-home audio systems.
The NV-T2SIR features an OLED capacitive touch front control panel similar to those found on its Grand Concerto and Essentia E6G Control Pads. It is fully compatible with NuVoNet 2, the communication suite that enables easy installation and communications among the source components, amplifiers and control pads that compose the NuVo whole-home audio ecosystem. The tuner also delivers metadata such as song titles and artists information to NuVo Control Pads, as well as to supporting third-party automation systems.
For comprehensive AM/FM and SIRIUS reception, the NV-T2SIR requires only a single RG6 run from the base tuner unit to the antennas. A diplexer can be used at the end of the run to split the RG6 between the AM/FM and SIRIUS antennas (SIRIUS Antenna sold separately).
"With the introduction of the NV-T2SIR, NuVo installers and their clients can now enjoy whole-home distribution of XM, SIRIUS or both satellite radio signals. The choice will soon be entirely in their hands," said David Rodarte, president and chief operating officer of NuVo Technologies. "In addition, users of the NV-T2SIR will enjoy the energy-saving benefits of the NV-T2SIR's engineering."
NuVo expects the NV-T2SIR to become the second NuVo product to earn the ENERGY STAR; its Essentia E6G was awarded the distinction late last year. NuVo is in the process of submitting and testing the NV-T2SIR for ENERGY STAR qualification. ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that helps Americans save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
NuVo's drive for ENERGY STAR qualification in its products has been inspired by an ENERGY STAR report that found that use of consumer electronics products is responsible for more than 25 percent of household electricity consumption–a number only expected to rise. ENERGY STAR products, the agency advises consumers, help prevent global warming and promote cleaner air without sacrificing quality and performance. To illustrate the potential of the program, ENERGY STAR says that if the roughly two TVs, VCR, DVD player and three telephones in the average home were replaced with ENERGY STAR models, over 25 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions would be saved–the equivalent of taking over three million cars off the road.
Many end users would be surprised to know, however, that home electronics products use significant amounts of energy even when they're "off" in standby mode to power features like clock displays and remote controls. Electronics products that have earned the ENERGY STAR meet the strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the EPA and DOE by using as much as 60 percent less energy to perform standby functions, while providing the same performance at the same price as less-efficient models, says the government agency.
Like NuVo's pioneering Essentia E6G system, the NV-T2SIR dual tuner delivers a major breakthrough in standby mode energy consumption for the whole-home audio category. To become ENERGY STAR qualified, electronics must consume less than one watt of power in standby mode, and the NV-T2SIR delivers in this regard. NuVo expects the NV-T2SIR to earn the ENERGY STAR this spring.
The NV-T2SIR is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2008 for an MSRP of $699.
About NuVo Technologies
Based in Hebron, Ky., just outside of Cincinnati, NuVo Technologies is an innovator in the engineering, manufacture and distribution of multi-room digital audio distribution systems. NuVo focuses just as much energy on its products' value and ease of use as it does on their quality, design, energy efficiency and engineering, striving for the highest levels in all aspects. NuVo believes the music-enabled home is something that all consumers can achieve and enjoy. Its products can make it happen. Visit NuVo's comprehensive website at www.nuvotechnologies.com.
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text:
Tiscali refocused its strategy to become a cloud service provider to open up new market opportunities.
reduction in IT budget
Products & Solutions
- Cloud Solutions
- Data Fabric
- Clustered Data ONTAP
Italy's only independent telecommunications operator uses a Data Fabric enabled by NetApp to help customers integrate and manage data across cloud resources.
Tiscali has experienced radical business transformation during its 17-year history. Its foundation is built on providing telephone services, yet Tiscali's trajectory and ability to shift strategy are what set this independent service provider apart from its competitors. Tiscali grew rapidly through Internet access services, expanding into 14 European countries. But market turbulence soon forced the company to rethink its aggressive acquisition strategy.
In 2005, Tiscali pivoted quickly, reprioritising its Italian customer base and returning its focus to innovation. Tiscali saw an opportunity to apply its expertise in telecom and managed IT services to break in to the business-to-business (B2B) market with enterprise-class cloud services.
Tiscali teamed up with NetApp to upgrade its infrastructure. It became the first adopter of the NetApp® clustered Data ONTAP® operating system in Italy and laid the foundation for a data fabric that gives customers choice and control in the hybrid cloud. Tiscali now is able to host multiple cloud services on a single, scalable storage platform while offering zero-downtime SLAs. Customer data is protected with secure multi-tenancy capabilities. All of this is achieved with 50% less data centre space and half the IT budget.
Tiscali's evolution from a provider of consumer utilities to a provider of enterprise-class cloud services reached a significant milestone in 2015 when Tiscali was awarded a seven-year contract with the Italian government.
About this Customer
Tiscali S.p.A. is one of the leading alternative telecommunications companies in Italy. Tiscali provides its consumer and business customers with a vast range of services, including internet access through dial-up and ADSL, voice, VoIP, media and value-added services, and other technologically advanced products.
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DARZ GmbH
Makes Secure Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud a RealityLearn More
SOFTBANK Group
Leveraged Cloud Services to Help Lift a NationLearn More
Orange Business Services
Reinventing Its Business for the Cloud EraLearn More


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Barretts of Canterbury Ltd
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Registered Office: Address: Broad Oak Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7PQ
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text:
This analysis was written by Aman Batheja of The Texas Tribune.
A new radio ad from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst brought race and illegal immigration to the forefront of the U.S. Senate race Friday, the last day of early voting before Tuesday's primary.
In the ad, called "Amnesty," Dewhurst's campaign implies that former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz supports granting amnesty to illegal immigrants due to Cruz's serving as a board member for two Hispanic groups, the Hispanic Leadership Fund and the Hispanic Alliance for Prosperity Institute.
The Cruz campaign and his supporters immediately denounced the ad Friday and were quick to point out that Cruz, who is Cuban, has long been a critic of amnesty proposals.
"That is the act of a desperate man clinging to power," Cruz said during a news conference in Fort Worth, according to The Dallas Morning News. "His lies are getting more and more ridiculous."
George P. Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and nephew of former President George W. Bush, has leadership positions with both of the Hispanic groups at issue in Dewhurst's ad. He also is a founder of Hispanic Republicans of Texas, a group that has endorsed Cruz.
"When I first heard this false attack ad, I was offended not only as a Hispanic but as a Republican," Bush said in a statement. "We are a party of inclusion that welcomes the fastest growing demographic in our state that largely shares our conservative values of limited government, strengthening the family and supporting small business."
The Cruz campaign also released a web ad called "Desperate Dewhurst's Amnesty Lies" that criticizes the radio ad and Dewhurst's record on immigration.
Dewhurst senior adviser Jim Bognet accused Cruz of "playing the victim card."
"Ted Cruz is desperate and flailing, so he's taken a page out of the Democrat playbook," Bognet said. "Cruz's attacks today are absolutely and totally out of line. This is about Cruz's deception and lack of character. Cruz is the one who chose to be involved and stand by these pro-amnesty groups."
Former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert's campaign said the back and forth should help voters realize that neither Cruz nor Dewhurst is worthy of their support.
"It's unfortunate that Dewhurst and Cruz have engaged in constant mudslinging, tearing others down to try to build themselves up," Leppert spokesman Daniel Keylin said. "How can either end politics as usual when both are already perfect examples of what's wrong with Washington? Tom will continue to run a positive campaign and focus on sharing his detailed solutions to get our economy back on track and rein in the federal government."
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2012-congressional-election/dewhursts-amnesty-attack-cruz-stirs-controversy/.


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Scholastic.com Interviews Tom Felton on Draco, You Tube Channel and More
Aug 17, 2008
Scholastic.com has posted a new interview with Tom Felton, where the actor discusses his role as Draco Malfoy in the Potter films, confirms his involvement with his music on his YouTube channel and more. In the article, which you can read via this link, Tom Felton gives his opinion on the character Draco Malfoy say it's "Not a very pleasant one, I assure you. I figure, I think of him as a misled only child who's been slightly bullied into his state of mind, if you will. But in long short, he is a nasty bit of work. A bit of a slimy, troublesome character who's not really up for any good and certainly the benefit of anyone else."
Tom Felton also confirms some scenes his character will have in "Half-Blood Prince" including the confrontation with Harry on the train to Hogwarts, noting "I remember reading the book before and thinking, "Oh, lord! This'll be fun! I was especially looking forward to the pool in the bathroom and being able to stamp on young Potter's face on the Hogwarts Express. I was always looking forward to the things of a physical nature. But they all got included, so no let-downs there."
Of his love of music, and his involvement with putting music up on a You Tube channel, Tom Felton confirms this by saying "I won't lie. This is the first time an interviewer has asked me about that. A friend of mine, a good musical friend of mine, moved away about a year and a half ago, and she was always very keen to hear new music. And we just figured the best way to do that was to put it onto YouTube " under an alias, obviously. But it didn't stay hidden very long, and now it's very much sort of in the public domain. So it was never really intended to be an advertising spin by any means, but yeah, they are original songs and obviously not sort of developed by any means but just sort of a little early draft, if you will. Just a bit of fun! But it seems to have a positive response, so I'm enjoying it."
Thanks to my son Andrew for the heads up! 🙂


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Once Thanksgiving had passed we decided it was time to get in the Christmas spirit!
The Friday after Thanksgiving we did not go shopping...we headed to Six Flags!
Christmas carols blared through the park and we had a great family fun day!
I took Riley to the kids area for a bit and Jason went to ride the Batman ride. Jason wanted to see what rides Riley might be tall enough to ride and we headed to an entire area of the park I've never been to!
Her and Jason rode this "big" roller coaster and she just loved it!
Funny faces!
They ended up getting in the very front of the coaster!
While they waited in line Miss T conked out and slept through quite a bit of fun!
Next up was these HUGE swings!
Riley was so brave and did great riding these big rides! I was so excited for her but a little sad at the same time realizing how much she's grown up!
After the big rides we headed to the entrance for the lighting of the Christmas tree!
Tessa woke up and LOVED seeing all the people and waving to all of them!
Loves her Daddy!
Pure JOY!
Getting tickles from Daddy!
Love my baby girl!
Merry Christmas...the tree was so pretty!


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It was death by counterattack for the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night, as a 66th-minute lapse led to a Sanna Nyassi goal and the Montreal Impact's share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw at BBVA Compass Stadium.
Marco Di Vaio, who took over the playmaking duties in the absence of the injured Felipe, played a sublime turn and through ball to Nyassi, who was persistent cleaning up his own rebound to stun the home crowd and erase an early Houston lead off the foot of Dynamo forward Will Bruin.
Houston's Brian Ching appeared to pull out the full three points with a chip of Montreal goalkeeper Troy Perkins in the 93rd minute, but after a conference between referee Chris Penso and assistant referee Jason Cullum, Ching was ruled offside and the goal was waved off.
The draw was a missed opportunity for the Dynamo (13-8-11), who will wait and see if the Columbus Crew can post a win over Sporting Kansas City on Sunday and surpass them into the fifth postseason spot in the Eastern Conference standings. The Crew trail the Dynamo by two points heading into the match.
The draw eliminated the expansion Impact (12-15-5) from postseason contention
The game came to life when Di Vaio and Bruin traded early attempts, and then Nyassi nearly broke the ice in the 15th minute. The speedy winger found his way through the Dynamo backline, but his run was stopped when Kofi Sarkodie and Tally Hall deflected shots to keep the Impact at bay.
Minutes later Dynamo midfielder Boniek Garcia, who took the free kick duties in place of the injured Brad Davis, tried a quick dead ball to Mac Kandji, but his header was tipped over by Perkins on a solid night for the Impact goalkeeper.
Houston finally the found the touch when winger Calen Carr shook Impact defender Alessandro Nesta in the box and set Bruin up for a poke at the near post to make it 1-0 in the 44th minute. Bruin's goal was his 12th of the season and brings him to within one of Ching's regular season franchise record, set in 2008.
Nyassi, however, capitalized when he found a seam in the Dynamo defense, and coolly beat Hall after the Dynamo goalkeeper denied Nyassi's first chance at the breakaway.
Second half subs Ching and Cam Weaver, however, nearly pulled the full three points out. Weaver, who added a stoppage time header, took a feed from Ching, but the woodwork turned him away in the 84th minute, and Ching's close attempt was blocked by Matteo Ferrari on the goal line a minute later.
Both teams return to play Oct. 20 when Houston hosts the Philadelphia Union, and Montreal travels to Toronto FC.
Houston Dynamo (13-8-11) vs. Montreal Impact (12-15-5)
October 6, 2012 BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston, TX
Attendance: 21,178
Scoring Summary:
HOU: Will Bruin 12 (Calen Carr 2, Corey Ashe 2) 44
MON: Sanna Nyassi 6 (unassisted) 66
Houston Dynamo: Tally Hall; Kofi Sarkodie, Bobby Boswell, Jermaine Taylor, Corey Ashe; Boniek Garcia, Ricardo Clark, Adam Moffat (Warren Creavalle 89); Calen Carr, Will Bruin (Cam Weaver 72), Macoumba Kandji (Brian Ching 72)
Substitutes not used: Tyler Deric, Andre Hainault, Giles Barnes, Colin Clark
Montreal Impact: Troy Perkins; Hassoun Camara, Alessandro Nesta (Lamar Neagle 46), Matteo Ferrari, Jeb Brovsky; Davy Arnaud, Patrice Bernier, Calum Mallace, Sanna Nyassi; Marco Di Vaio, Andrew Wenger (Justin Mapp 65)
Substitues not used: Evan Bush, Josh Gardner, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Shavar Thomas, Zarek Valentin
Misconduct Summary:
MTL: Sanna Nyassi (caution) 65
MTL: Matteo Ferrari (caution) 71
Referee: Chris Penso
Referee's Assistants: Jason Callum, Mark Cahen
4th Official: Jason Anno


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So, the subject of our book is certainly in the air as of late. First, Ann Marie Slaughter, and now, a piece on The Daily Beast by Debora Spar, whose take on the issues of women chasing perfection, juggling roles and choices in a not-adequately-changed world was, frankly, so similar to the things we've written here and in our book, it took us a moment to realize it wasn't our byline on her piece.
Now that that's out of the way, as we noticed way back when we began writing Undecided in 2008, women today, blessed with the abundance of choices our mothers fought to get access to–and our foremothers might have thought impossible–are finding that this blessing is indeed mixed. That the messages on which we were raised, messages delivered with the best of intentions, have a flipside, as though delivered via an evil game of Telephone. Told we can have it all, we heard we must do it all. Told we can do anything, we heard that whatever we choose to do, it better be something good… and we better do it perfectly. We are told to be grateful for all the choices we have, and, of course, we are, but the one crucial message that never got sent was this: that every choice entails a trade-off. That we cannot be in two places at once. That, by definition (not to mention the basic laws of physics), if I am sitting here pounding out this piece right now, I am not taking my dog for a hike, or meeting a friend for happy hour, or cleaning out my closet as I've been meaning to do for weeks now. (Though, I am, as a matter of fact, simultaneously cooking dinner. And now my keyboard is getting sticky from the roasted garlic I just pulled out of the oven. Dear Multitasking: You suck.) There are only so many hours in the day. No one really clues us in to that one.
We set off, ready to conquer the world, as we believe we're supposed to. And then we realize: Having it all is simply not possible. A high-flying career woman is not also a stay-at-home mom. A stay-at-home mom is not also a globe-trotting free spirit. A globe-trotting free spirit is not also putting down roots, and paying down a mortgage. Every time we make a choice in favor of something, we are by default not choosing something else. But the rub is that we think it's only about us. That we're not good enough. That if only we were ___er, we'd be able to swing it. But that's a lie.
That the chorus is getting louder is good. Because there is so much that remains to be done. And that there remains so much to be done–on the public policy and workplace fronts, yes, but in the way we talk to (and about) our sisters, our girlfriends and our selves, as well–in no way diminishes all the work that has been done, all that's come before. And that we don't want to diminish all that's come before doesn't diminish what lies ahead. The world hasn't caught up to what we've been told–that feminism's fight is over, the battles won–policies and structures are still evolving. And we're still so very, very hard on ourselves. We worry we aren't measuring up, aren't successful enough or a good enough parent or pretty enough or in shape enough or organic enough. All while mired in the juggle!
As we wrote in Undecided, women today are experiencing a collective bout of growing pains. And one way to ease those pains is to give up the chase for perfect, the attempt to have it all, and focus instead on, well, finding the life that's right for us.


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In an annual strategy meeting with financial analysts, Chris Liddell, Microsoft's chief financial officer, announced that Microsoft requires a loan to finance the cash portion of its 50-50 stock-and-cash offer for Yahoo:
It's going to be a mixture of the cash we have on hand plus debt. We could fund most of that through our cash holdings, but it's likely we're actually going to borrow for the first time. It will be a mixture of the cash on hand, plus debt.
The cash portion of the deal would be more than $20 billion, and since Microsoft had about $21.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of its most recent quarter, the software giant would have to spend itself dry to buy out Yahoo without a loan. The fact that this would be the first time in its history that Microsoft would need to borrow money may sound a bit impressive, but the acquisition would also be Microsoft's largest to date (the current largest is the all-cash purchase of aQuantive for $6 billion in August 2007). Liddell did not say how much external financing Microsoft would seek.
Liddell also declined to say whether Microsoft was already buying up its Internet rival's stock on the open market in an effort to exert greater control over the company's board. Liddell did reveal, though, that he expects Microsoft's revenue to grow at a double-digit rate in the coming fiscal year, despite a potential economic slowdown in the United States.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was also present at the meeting. He stated his belief that the offer for Yahoo was a generous one (the proposed $31 per share represented a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's closing stock price the day before Microsoft's announcement) and that he expected Yahoo's board and shareholders to agree to the buyout quickly. Microsoft said that combining with Yahoo would speed up the process of building a company capable of capturing 40 percent of the digital advertising market.
Ballmer noted, however, that if the company was successful in its bid, it would continue to invest in building the business. "We're trying to increase scale and increase capacity to give ourselves a better chance to be more successful more quickly," he said.
Further reading
- New York Times: "Microsoft Says It May Borrow to Acquire Yahoo"


text: The publishing industry is undergoing more change now than at any time in its history. Booksellers, publishers and others aligned with the book industry are seeking new ways to engage readers, build communities and encourage reading at every age! Fostering the importance of reading in young children and offering new books and authors throughout their life is a goal for all members of the industry. Although, there has been an industry shift from print to digital - altering how we acquire, develop, distribute, sell, loan and read books affects every piece of the value chain from Author to reader — it is still all about reading! Ingram Content Group Chief Executive Officer John Ingram will moderate a panel of thought leaders who are turning the traditional way of publishing and bookselling on its head and helping shape the future of the book through innovation, new business models, and determination. Join in the discussion focusing on the most important issue in our industry — reading!


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CMLL #19: Los Perros del Mal Rematch DVD-R
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- Felino, Metro & Satanico vs. Averno, Mephisto & Sangre Azteca
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Rosiglitazone in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed ACTH-Secreting Pituitary Tumor (Cushing Disease)
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00612066
Recruitment Status : Terminated (Low accrual and funding term ended)
First Posted : February 11, 2008
Results First Posted : February 17, 2016
Last Update Posted : August 6, 2020
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- Study Results
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
RATIONALE: Rosiglitazone may help pituitary tumor cells become more like normal cells, and to grow and spread more slowly.
PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well rosiglitazone works in treating patients with newly diagnosed ACTH-secreting pituitary tumor (Cushing disease).
|Condition or disease
|Cushing's Disease
|Drug: rosiglitazone maleate
|Phase 2
- To assess the effect of rosiglitazone on biochemical control in patients with newly diagnosed ACTH-secreting pituitary tumor (Cushing disease).
- To assess the effect of this drug on corticotrophin (CRH)-stimulated pituitary tumor ACTH secretion.
- To assess the overall safety and tolerability of this drug in these patients.
- To assess the overall quality of life of patients treated with this drug.
- Percentage of Reduction in 24-hour Urinary-free Cortisol Levels
OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.
Patients receive oral rosiglitazone once daily for 7 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
Blood, urine, and saliva samples are collected periodically for laboratory studies. Inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 [IL-6], serum sialic acid, soluble intracellular and vascular adhesion molecules [sICAM-1, and sVCAM-1], and amyloid A) are measured at baseline and at the completion of study treatment; salivary cortisol and 24-hour urinary-free cortisol levels are measured at baseline and weekly during study treatment; dexamethasone suppression tests with serum cortisol and corticotrophin (CRH) stimulation test are performed at baseline and at the completion of study treatment; prolactin, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1), thyroid function, and sex steroid hormones are measured at baseline and at the completion of study treatment; and dynamic pituitary function testing (arginine/growth hormone-releasing hormone [GHRH] testing to measure growth hormone secretion) is performed at baseline.
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|2 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|An Open Label, Multicenter Study Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of Short Term (6 Weeks) Rosiglitazone Treatment in Patient's With Cushing's Disease
|Study Start Date :
|April 2007
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|November 2010
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|November 2010
|Experimental: Rosiglitazone
Drug: rosiglitazone maleate
- Number of Responders [ Time Frame: 7 weeks ]
Definition of Treatment Response
- The primary outcome in Cushing's disease will the % responders, a responder is defined as a patient with 2 consecutive 24h urinary free cortisols within the normal reference range in association with no clinical signs of disease progression.
- Secondary outcomes will include the % reduction in 24h UFC (derived by comparison of the mean of 2 baseline 24h UFC values with mean of the two lowest consecutive 24h UFC values while on study treatment in association with no clinical signs of disease progression).
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 65 Years (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Clinically demonstrable ACTH-secreting pituitary tumor
- Pituitary tumor demonstrated on MRI with and without contrast AND/OR evidence of a central ACTH source following inferior petrosal sinus sampling
- Newly diagnosed disease
Biochemically active disease that is not adequately controlled, as demonstrated by the following standard criteria:
- Elevated 24-hour urinary-free cortisol levels on at least 2 separate 24-hour urine collections 1 week apart
- Lack of suppression of serum cortisol to < 1.8 μg/dL (at 8 am) following administration of 1 mg of dexamethasone at 11 pm the night before
- Measurable plasma ACTH levels
- Patient is hypercortisolemic and does not wish to receive alternate steroid-lowering therapy, such as ketoconazole and/or metyrapone
Patients with evidence of optic nerve or chiasm compression on post-operative MRI must have a normal visual field evaluation by Goldman perimetry
- No visual field abnormalities
Hypopituitarism* allowed, as evidenced by any or all of the following:
- Subnormal growth hormone (GH) response to arginine/growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) testing (normal response is an increase of > 4 ng/mL)
- Low age-and sex-matched insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels
- Low thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels
- Low free triiodothyronine (T3) and free thyroxine (T4) levels
- Low estradiol levels
- Low luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels in postmenopausal female patients
- Low testosterone, LH, and FSH levels in male patients NOTE: *Patients who are diagnosed with hypopituitarism will initiate thyroid hormone replacement therapy prior to pituitary surgery as part of routine care. Other hormone replacement, such as sex steroids or growth hormone, will not be initiated during the study.
- Not pregnant or nursing
- Fertile patients must use effective contraception (if oral contraception is used, it must be used for ≥ 2 months prior to, during, and for 1 month after completion of study therapy)
- No clinically significant renal, hematologic, or hepatic abnormalities
- No prior or concurrent medical condition that may interfere with the conduct of the study or the evaluation of its results, in the opinion of the investigator or the DSMB compliance officer
- No history of immunocompromise, including HIV positivity by ELISA and western blot
- No alcohol or drug abuse within the past 6 months
- No blood donation (≥ 400 mL) within the past 2 months
- No other active malignant disease within the past 5 years except for basal cell carcinoma or carcinoma in situ of the cervix
- No active or suspected acute or chronic uncontrolled infection
- No severe osteoporosis, defined as bone mineral density T scores < 2.5 standard deviations below age-matched controls
- No history of noncompliance to medical regimens
- Considered reliable
- Able to complete the entire study
- More than 3 months since prior rosiglitazone or other thiazolidinedione
- No prior or concurrent radiotherapy for pituitary tumor
- More than 1 month since prior participation in any clinical investigation involving an investigational drug
- More than 30 days since prior unlicensed drugs
- No concurrent pituitary surgery
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00612066
|United States, California
|Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA
|Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095-1781
|Principal Investigator:
|Anthony Heaney, MD
|Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
|Responsible Party:
|Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|First Posted:
|February 11, 2008 Key Record Dates
|Results First Posted:
|February 17, 2016
|Last Update Posted:
|August 6, 2020
|Last Verified:
|January 2016
ACTH-producing pituitary tumor
ACTH-Secreting Pituitary Adenoma
Pituitary ACTH Hypersecretion
Pituitary Neoplasms
Endocrine Gland Neoplasms
Neoplasms by Site
Brain Diseases
Central Nervous System Diseases
Nervous System Diseases
Hypothalamic Diseases
Pituitary Diseases
Endocrine System Diseases
Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial
Neoplasms by Histologic Type
Hypoglycemic Agents
Physiological Effects of Drugs


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Obama gives supporters a tearful thank you
President Barack Obama wiped away tears as he thanked supporters the day after elections for all their hard work in the past year.
The president made a surprise visit to his Chicago campaign office Wednesday to show appreciation to campaign staffers and volunteers.
In a five-minute video released by his campaign yesterday, the president shares the story of how he moved to Chicago at 25 years old, knowing he wanted to make a difference but not knowing where or how to start. It was as a community organizer for several south side churches that Obama learned about "the grit and resilience of ordinary people."
He said he also learned how to work with others for a common purpose and how to deal with disappointment when it happened.
"I grew up," Obama told the crowd. "I became a man during that process."
He praised the campaigners for all they've accomplished, comparing his story to theirs.
"You're smarter and you're better organized. You're more effective and I'm absolutely confident that all of you are going to do amazing things in your lives," he said.
But it's when he recounted election night that the president became emotional. He said that he knew regardless of the results, that his work had "come full circle."
"What you guys have done means that the work that I'm doing is important," he said tearfully. "And I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of all of you."
The audience applauded loudly as the president paused to wipe his eyes, and as he finished his speech, he reminded the group that their journey was only beginning.
"You're just starting and whatever good we do over the next four years will pale in comparison to what you guys end up accomplishing for years and years to come."
Follow Ugonna on Twitter at @ugonnaokpalaoka


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Those of us who cover the automotive industry for a living smelled trouble early on for the U.S. launch of the Fiat 500, which was the initial Fiat model to migrate to America as part of the company's takeover of Chrysler It seemed as though there was a disconnect between the two companies, which translated to journalists having trouble getting even the most basic information with no dedicated press contact to call.
Fiat was also insisting that the Fiat 500 should be marketed as a separate brand, and that dealers who signed up to sell it — many of them Chrysler dealers reeling from the recession —- would be expected to provide a separate building for Fiat and a dedicated sales staff. Even with the plethora of vacant auto storefronts available for cheap, it was a commitment, and one that Fiat eased after meeting with initial kickback from dealers. Finally, Fiat could give those dealers no firm timeline for when additional Fiat models would arrive to fill that new showroom — beyond a couple of different models of the tiny 500.
Add to that the ill-advised TV campaign featuring Jennifer Lopez, and the initial launch of the Fiat 500 was a disaster.
Too bad, since the car is a pretty good one, especially at the base-model level. Load it with options, and the price rises quickly to the Mini Cooper neighborhood. Still, with new TV and print commercials, and some positive word-of-mouth buzz, Fiat 500 sales are beginning to gain traction.
Enter the Fiat 500 Abarth, a much-needed performance model that injects some genuine excitement into the brand. Karl Abarth was a longtime tuner who hot-rodded various Fiat models beginning in the 1950s, and though he died in 1979, his name still resonates with European-savvy auto enthusiasts.
The Fiat 500 Abarth has a 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine, but turbocharging pumps horsepower up to 160, not bad for a 2,515-pound car. The transmission is still a five-speed manual — a six-speed would have been nice, and might have boosted mileage a bit from the EPA-rated 28 mpg city, 34 mpg highway. Regular gas is fine, but premium is preferred, as with many turbos.
The Abarth package adds a stiffer suspension, better brakes, bigger 16-inch tires and aluminum wheels, some trim features such as a rear spoiler, and a much, much louder exhaust. It will be up to you whether the exhaust note is invigorating or annoying. To me, it sounds flatulent, like a Honda with a hole in the muffler.
You get all this, plus plenty of premium features, for $22,000, plus shipping. The test 500 Abarth also had a long list of options, including bigger 17-inch tires and wheels, leather upholstery, a sunroof, a TomTom navigation system and a few other features that, with shipping, raised the price to $26,900. That's a lot for a car that is just 144.4 inches long and barely seats four, but if you like the Italian flavor, perhaps it's worth it.
I say "flavor," because the Fiat is built in Toluca, Mexico, in the old PT Cruiser plant. The engine is made at a Chrysler plant in Dundee, Mich. The transmission, at least, is Italian. But inside and out, the well-constructed 500 Abarth has an eager, integrating personality. Front-seat passengers have adequate room, and two adults fit better than you'd expect in back. There's an acceptable 9.5 cubic feet of luggage space, or 26.8 cubic feet with the rear seats folded.
Handling is crisp and go-kart-like, and the electric power steering has an appropriate road feel. The ride is a little rough and noisy, which made the 500 Abarth slightly tiresome on longer trips. It's fine around town or on rural backroads, but if you do a lot of expressway driving, be sure to test-drive the 500 Abarth under those conditions and make sure you find it suitable.
Otherwise, it's a fun and thrifty commuter. And with Charlie Sheen starring in its commercials, instead of Jennifer Lopez, even the advertising has the appropriate attitude.